Prashant Kishor, a leader of the Janata Dal(United), which is an ally of the BJP, on Monday again caused embarrassment to the alliance, while responding to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s comments on the Delhi Assembly election.
“EVM buttons will be pressed with just love in Delhi on February 8. It should be a big jolt, with mild current, so that brotherhood and friendship is not endangered,” Mr. Kishor, a national vice-president of the JD(U), wrote on Twitter, in reaction to Mr. Shah’s comments at a meeting in Delhi. “When you press the button [on the electronic voting machine] on February 8, do so with such anger that its current is felt at Shaheen Bagh,” Mr. Shah had said, referring to the protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).
Of late, Mr. Kishor has been taking on the BJP and JD(U) president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over the CAA and a pan-India National Register of Citizens (NRC). A few days ago, he released an old video on his Twitter handle, in which senior BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi was heard attacking Mr. Nitish Kumar. In turn, BJP and JD(U) leaders have called Mr. Kishor “a power broker and businessman”.
Sources say Mr. Kishor has not been invited to a meeting of JD(U) leaders scheduled for Tuesday at Mr. Nitish Kumar’s official residence in Patna to discuss strategies for the Assembly election due in October-November. Mr. Nitish Kumar is expected to take a decision at the meeting on Mr. Kishor and Pawan Varma, another JD(U) leader, who has questioned the party’s alliance with the BJP for the Assembly election.
